General Questions

Q: What is IMBox?

IMBox is an encrypted and secure instant messaging solution specifically designed to cover the communication needs of your company.

With IMBox you will be able to create, very easily, a private and secure network to communicate and send any kind of files within your company.

Q: How do I create the instant messaging network for my Company?

Creating your own company network in IMBox is really simple. Just click on register your Company and fill out the required information (company name, admin email, password, etc.) then press “Register”. You will automatically receive a confirmation email, once validated, your network will be registered and ready to use and you will be assigned its administration rights.

Setting up your network

Q: How do I invite the other employees to the network?

Inviting the rest of your Company is also really easy! Log in with the email and password you used when registering the network and access the web Control Panel (you can access it here).

From the Control Panel you will be able to, amongst other things, invite any company employee to join the network. Go to the first tab in the Control Panel (Invites), include the email address of the other employees or alternatively upload a .csv file with all the emails you want to include.

Q: I have invited a user but the invitation has not arrived, what could have happened?

If you have already confirmed that the email has not gone to the junk mail folder, the most likely cause is that the email submitted was not correct.

In the Control Panel access “Audit Log” tab where you will find a log of what has happened and you will be able to check if there was any error in the submitted email address.

If the email address is correct and the invitation has not yet arrived, send us an email and we will be very happy to help.

Q: How can I control who accesses my company´s messaging network?

It is important to note that none will be able to access your network without authorization. Only those who have received an email invitation will be able to access your private network.

From the Control Panel you will have total control of the invitations sent and the registrations to the network:

From the “Audit Log” tab you will be able to see all the invitations sent, registered users, failed invitations due to incorrect email address, etc.

From the “Employees” tab you will be able to see the employee profile, its contacts, groups they belong to, etc.

From the “Administration” tab you will be able to:

Configure the network in ACL Mode (RECOMMENDED): only users with a valid invitation and a company approved email domain will be able to join your network.

Configure the network in CLOSE mode: if you establish a close network, only the administrator will be able to manually add users from the control panel.

Configure the network in OPEN mode: any person with a valid invitation regardless of the email domain will be able to join your network.

Setting up your user account

Q: How do I activate my user account?

After sending the invitations from the Control Panel, users will receive an email with their temporary access credentials.

Once received, they only need to download the app from the App Store (iOS), Google Play (Android) or PC/Mac and finalize the registration of the app. For security reasons, they will be requested to change the password before finalizing the registration and prior to joining the network.

Remember that as the administrator you can use the same credentials used to register the network when accessing the app as a user.

Q: How do I recover my password?

If you have forgotten your password you will be able to recover it both from your mobile or PC/Mac app.

From the Log in screen, introduce the email address you registered with and press “Recover Password”. You will receive an email with a link to introduce your new password. Once done, introduce it in the app to access.

Q: Can I change my password?

Yes, if you want to change your password just follow these simple steps:

From the mobile app open the left side Menu and click Settings- My Account –Change password.

From the PC/Mac app click IMBox - Preferences.

Q: I am the network administrator and cannot remember my password, can I recover it?

Yes, simply access the Log in screen on the Control Panel, introduce the email address used when registering the network and click “Recover Password”.

You will receive an email with a link to introduce your new password. Once done, you will be able to use it to access the Control Panel.

Q: Can I use IMBox in any device?

IMBox is available for PC, Mac and Android and iOS phones and tablets. You can use your account in your PC/Mac and mobile at the same time as they are perfectly synchronized.

Basic Functionality

Q: How can I start chatting to my co-workers?

Once the account has been activated, communicating with your co-workers is very simple. On the top right corner of the main screen, click on the “pencil” icon or swipe left to access your contacts.

You will see the contacts are divided in two sections:

My company: where you will be able to see your registered co-workers. Press on any of them to start chatting.

Other companies: here you will be able to find any contacts you may have from other companies (Clients/Providers) that are also using IMBox as their private messaging network. You will be able to start a secure chat with them by clicking on their name.

Q: Why can I see a warning stating “Attention, there may be users from other companies in this chat…” in some of my chats?

Nothing to worry about! As mentioned above, with IMBox you will be able to communicate with users from other companies (clients/providers) that are also using IMBox as their private messaging network. The warning appears only as a reminder that on that chat there could be users from outside your private company network.

This does not mean that external users are in your private network or have access to your chat groups.

Q: Why do some messages have a colored square with a letter inside?

When you see a message with a colored square with a letter insider it means that it is coming from an external user. The letter corresponds to the first letter of the company name.

Q: Can I know if someone has read my message?

Yes, when you send a message one of three possible statuses will appear under it:

Sent: Message has been sent

Received: Message has been received

Read: Message has been received and read

Q: How can I edit my profile?

In the main screen, click on the top left icon or swipe right to access the menu where you will find your name, by clicking on it you will be able to access your profile and edit (Name, surname, Description, etc.)

Q: Will my co-workers be able to see my email address or telephone number?

No, personal data will not be accessible to anyone inside the app.

Q: What is the Passport on my profile for?

Every user in IMBox has a Passport. The Passport is a unique identifier and is the equivalent to your email address in IMBox.

We have created the Passport to avoid having to facilitate your personal data (email or phone) to external users and to be able to get in touch by knowing their Passport.

Q: I can´t find one of my co-workers in my contact list, how do I find him?

It is very easy! Simply click on the “Magnifying glass” icon from the main screen, type his name or email and click on the icon again. The contact will automatically appear so you can start chatting.

Q: I am trying to search an external user by name but I cannot find it, how can I start a conversation?

External users are not accesible by name, you will need to know their Passport in order to start a chat with them.

If you would like to connect with an external user, simply ask for their Passport or provide yours. You will be able to find them by introducing their Passport in the “Magnifying glass” and send a “Contact request” to chat to them.

Q: Can I disable message notifications?

Yes, with IMBox you can configure notifications. Simply swipe right from the main screen and click on settings. In the Alerts section you will find:

Notifications: where you can activate/deactivate notifications in private chats or group chats as well as choosing the ring tone for the notifications.

Text in notifications: select this option if you do not wish to preview the content of the message when receiving the notification.

Silence IMBox: Activate this option when you do not wish to receive any kind of notification. Once you deactivate this option the previous settings will be applied again.

Vibration: choose when you would like the phone to vibrate when receiving a message (Never, Always unless on a chat, Always).

Q: Can I silence a specific private or group chat?

Yes, access the chat you wish to silence and click on the icon on the top right corner to access the chat options. When selecting the “Silence” option you will see a mute icon next to the chat from the main screen, this means the chat has been silenced correctly and you will not receive notifications from any messages from that chat.

Q: What’s the difference between a group chat and a broadcast list?

In broadcast lists, unlike group chats, only the person that created the list and those given administrator rights on it will be able to send messages. The rest of the members will only be able to read and not write.

In group chats every member will be able to read and write.

Q: How do I create a group or list?

Creating a group or broadcast list is very easy! Simply click on “Create Group” in the main screen and select one of two options (Create Group Chat/Create broadcast list).

Q: How can I comment on a message?

In IMBox you can comment on messages so they become an independent conversation thread. To comment on a message simply click on it and use the blue pen icon on the bottom of the screen to reply.

If you type or comment on a message you will be automatically following that thread, meaning from then onwards you will receive notifications on the main screen for any new comments on that thread. If you want to stop being notified simply click on the eye icon you can find next to the comments to unsubscribe.

Q: How can I access my cloud?

Q: How can I add or remove files from my cloud?

Click on “Options” on the top right corner. The three options below will appear in the bottom of the screen:

Upload: select this option to upload any kind of file from your device to your IMBox cloud.

Delete: select this option to delete files from your clouds, there are two options:

Delete only from your cloud: When choosing this option you will delete the file from your cloud but it will remain accessible to the other users in the chats where it has been shared.

Delete all: You will only be able to completely delete files that you have uploaded. If you completely delete a file, it will not only be removed from your cloud but from the cloud of any chat where it has been shared or from the cloud of any other user that had saved the file.

Share: select this option to share one or more files in one or more IMBox chats or even share files via email or any other app.

Q: A co-worker sent a file but all I can see is a bin icon and when trying to access the message it states that the file has been deleted, what happened?

If you see a bin icon in the chat and when trying to access the message it states that “the file has been deleted”, it means that the owner of the file has completely delete the file from the network and is no longer available.

Q: I have received a PDF in a chat; can I store it in my cloud to check later?

Of course! When accessing the message containing the PDF you can choose to save it in the cloud, forward to a different chat (by clicking on the arrow) or just opening it from your device.

Q: Some files have disappeared from my personal cloud and I haven´t deleted them, why?

Two things may have occurred:

The file owner has completely deleted the file from the network

Your network administrator has established an expiry date for all the files uploaded and shared in the network. If you do not agree with this time limit please contact your network administrator

QQ: I want to access the files shared in a group, how do I do it?

You will only be able to access the files if you are a member of the group. If you are a member, simply enter the chat and click on the cloud icon you will find at the top of the screen. You will be accessing the group cloud and will be able to access all the files shared in the group, save them in your cloud, forward them, etc…

IMBox Security

What kind of encryption does IMBox use?

Every time you open the IMBox app it requests our servers a 256 bits session key. This key is generated by combining a random 256-bit pattern and the master key of the user with AES256-GCM method.

Through this process besides uniquely identifying the user we also establish an AES256bits encrypted tunnel through which messages are sent securely.

I would like the files shared through my IMBox network to be stored in our company´s servers, is that possible?

Yes, it is possible. Most of our customers choose to delegate to IMBox all maintenance and infrastructure management but sometimes for reasons of force majeure, this is not possible. For these cases, there are two alternatives:

Delocalized storage: Designed for clients that due to regulatory or compliance reasons are required to store the information they handle in their own servers.

One of my employees has lost its phone containing highly confidential information, what can I do?

In the Control Panel, go to the “Employee” tab where you can remotely delete the device from your network. To do so just follow the instructions below:

Change or ask the user to change his email password.

Now from the control panel run the remote swipe process for that user.

Once completed, the user will receive an email requesting a password change.

As soon as the password change is completed, all associated devices with internet access will receive instructions to delete their local databases.

User can now Log in again from the new device.

I would like the files and conversations to clear automatically, how do I do it?

By default all information you share through IMBox is stored indefinitely, however this may change. From the control panel you can activate the automatic deletion, after 1 week, 1 month, 3 months or 1 year.

How can I activate the audit module in my company?

The audit module is deactivated by default. If your business has any regulatory or compliance requirement that requires it to be activated, please contact us by email.

By activating the audit module and thanks to IMBox Horis tool you will have access to your employee’s message history and activity log.